Microbolometer structures are generally fabricated on monolithic silicon substrates to form an array of microbolometers, with each microbolometer functioning as a pixel to produce a two-dimensional image. The change in resistance of each microbolometer is translated into a time-multiplexed electrical signal by circuitry known as the read out integrated circuit (ROIC). The combination of the ROTC and the microbolometer array are commonly known as a microbolometer focal plane array (FPA).
A microbolometer array typically provides a static array of a predetermined size, such as for example an array having 320 rows and 256 columns which would represent a 320 by 256 microbolometer array (i.e., 81,920 pixels). Thus, a potential drawback of this conventional type of microbolometer array is that the pixel size and array size is fixed along with the associated infrared camera performance parameters. As a results, there is a need for improved techniques for implementing microbolometer focal plane arrays.